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Blessings come in pairs


		March 11, 2010

Submitted Mike, who is holding Brooklyn, Taiton, age 2, Sydney, age 4, and Kelly holding Brienna.	by Norma Dittman

Exciting and welcome news was learned at the home of Mike and Kelly Boersma, Elkton, SD, during the middle of June 2009...there would be another addition to their family. Upon its arrival into the world, the new little one would be welcomed by a sister, Sydney, age 4 and a brother, Taiton, age 2.

At a July 6th appointment, an ultrasound revealed two yolk saks, and showed that there something abnormal about the fetus - there were two structures within the sac and the pulse in each was exactly the same. The Boersma’s doctor believed that the two structures were somehow connected. It was on this day that Kelly began to tell about her pregnancy by maintaining entries on blogspot.com. As she added each entry, a story of a great journey filled with love, patience, pride, fear, and joy was written.

Three days after their first ultrasound, the Boersma found themselves at another ultrasound appointment. They watched the screen as the technician performed the test. During this appointment, they learned that the babies were monoamniotic twins. Monoamniotic twins are always identical. They share a placenta within their mother’s uterus, and have two separate umbilical cords for nourishment. Monoamniotic twins are extremely rare, occurring in approximately 1 in 35,000 to 1 in 60,000 pregnancies. With monoamniotic twins, there is no barrier present between the babies. The Boersma learned that there was a high possibility that the twins could be conjoined and that there were many risks surrounding this type of pregnancy. Some of the risks included umbilical cord entanglement, cord compression, twin-to-twin transufsion syndrome, and preterm birth.

By the first days of August, the Boersmas had learned that the babies would be delivered at or before 24 weeks gestation, Kelly began researching information about preemie babies, and the couple registered to take the Infant and Child CPR classes that were being offered through Sanford Hospital in the fall. Parents of NICU babies are required to watch a video on CPR before they take their babies home.

On August 20th, Mike and Kelly learned that due to the many concerns involving monoamniotic twins, Kelly would become an inpatient at 24 weeks gestation. Being an inpatient would allow medical personnel to regularly monitor the babies progress and begin daily ultrasounds to watch for factors that might endanger the babies lives. It was during the August 20th appointment that the couple also learned that their babies would be delivered around 32 weeks gestation, and that the babies were girls.

As the months progrressed, Kelly would enter information on the Boersma twins blog following doctors appointments. Many times, she would include the babies weight and heart rates. On September 9th, Kelly wrote “Well, the little ladies were very active today and kinda camera shy! But we did manage to get some essential photos to checkup on their progress. Theyhave doubled in size since our last appointment. Today “baby A” weighed in at 8 ounces, had a heart rate of 151 and measured at 18 weeks and 2 days. The “baby B” today weighed in at 9 ounces, had a heart rate of 145 and measured at 18 weeks and 3 days. Three weeks ago they only weighed 4 ounces each.”

As with any journey, there are days that are looked forward to and days that are more warily anticipated. But for the Boersmas, any time that they could see their daughters via ultrasound and watch them move about was a very good day. Even the beginning of Kelly’s eight week stay in the hospital, which began on October 22nd, was greeted with anticipation by Kelly. On the Boersma blog she wrote, “ Well, we made it to 24 weeks! All is well here. I got admitted to the hospital at 10 a.m. and everything looks good so far....I got the first round of steroids for the babies lungs this afternoon and will get the second tomorrow...One day down and 55 more to go!” Click on the button to the right to subscribe to our on-line paper and view the rest of this story.